Ice makers generally produce ice for the use of consumers, such as in drinks being consumed, for cooling foods or drinks to be consumed and/or for other various purposes. Certain refrigerator appliances include ice makers for producing ice. The ice maker can be positioned within the appliances' freezer chamber and direct ice into an ice bucket where it can be stored within the freezer chamber. Such refrigerator appliances can also include a dispensing system for assisting a user with accessing ice produced by the refrigerator appliances' ice maker. However, the incorporation of ice makers into refrigerator appliance can have drawbacks, such as limits on the amount of ice that can be produced and the reliance on the refrigeration system of the refrigerator appliance to form the ice.
Recently, stand-alone ice makers have been developed. These ice makers are separate from refrigerator appliances and provide independent ice supplies, and may be capable of being moved from place to place. Many stand-alone ice makers utilize a sealed refrigeration system to produce ice, which can include a compressor. In order to move a stand-alone ice maker, consumers may need to unpower the stand-alone ice maker. If the compressor has previously built up an appropriate operating pressure differential, the compressor motor may not be able to overcome the pressure differential when the stand-alone ice maker is repowered, which can cause the compressor to stall and overheat. A safety device may then be triggered, preventing the ice maker from making ice for a long period of time, such as half an hour to an hour. A delay in starting the compressor when the stand-alone ice maker is first powered can allow for the pressure differential to be reduced, thereby preventing overheating of the compressor, but this will delay the time to first ice, leading to potential customer frustration. Further, typical stand-alone ice makers are expensive, to the point of being cost-prohibitive to the typical consumer.
Accordingly, improved stand-alone ice makers are desired in the art. In particular, cost-effective stand-alone ice makers which decrease the time to first ice while preventing a compressor from overheating would be advantageous.